A Book Can Make You a Bundle!

By Kathy Burns
Posted Wednesday, January 12, 2005

In the past 6 months, a new form of Books has grown in popularity on the Internet: EBooks. An EBook is simply an Electronic Book distributed via download in Windows, Macintosh, or Palm Pilot file formats. With the widespread acceptance of EBooks, savvy marketers are finding that there is even more opportunity in this area than was first thought.

Creating your own EBooks is not time consuming or expensive but they must be well thought out before they are put on the market for sale or download.

First, decide what the purpose of your EBook is. 1. Will it be in an advetorial format? The editorial feel of this approach is beneficial for drawing more attention and traffic to a specific website, product or service.

2. Will it be a how-to manual that teaches the reader about something specific? This approach is flexible because you can give it away free as a traffic generator, or if it is comprehensive enough you can actually sell it as a product.

3. Will it be a full fledged book that you will sell? This is becoming more and more popular in the online publishing world because it is relatively quick to create and there is very little cost. We suggest that you also make a free advetorial to promote the full EBook if you go this route.

Once you have decided how your EBook fits into your business plans, you then must decide on the topic. The topic should always relate to your website content or business area of expertise. This will make your EBook more credible and will enhance the chances of generating site traffic or sales from those that read your EBook.

Almost any area of expertise can be utilized successfully in an EBook. If your area of expertise is Real Estate, your EBook could contain information on hidden finance secrets, or things to beware of when looking for a new home. If your website is about Japanese tourism, your EBook could contain the best and worst night clubs to visit while in Japan. The list of ideas can go on for pages, but you get the general idea. Write what you know and your EBook will be downloaded by people that want that information. This gives you a very targeted audience and increases your chances of selling products or services to them.

The next thing you must consider, is what format you would like to offer your EBook in. As with anything web based, the more audiences you can reach the better, so keep this in mind when creating your EBook. If you are able to offer it in multiple formats then by all means do so! Most EBooks are offered in Windows file format. Some are usable on Macintosh and some are made for the Palm Pilot handheld computer.

With each of these mediums, there also comes a wide range of software options. The most widely used of course is simple HTML. When using HTML for an EBook, you must still keep things such as screen resolution and browser version in mind. Some people prefer to use Adobe PDF files for their EBook distribution, however be aware that this file format is very difficult to read for long periods of time on a computer screen. PDF files are most appropriate for EBooks that you intend to have the reader actually print out and read on paper.

Palm Pilot Handheld computers also have a variety of software to choose from when it comes to reading an EBook. The good news however is that almost all of the software for that platform can read an EBook regardless of the software program it was created for. This makes the Palm Pilot EBooks much more versatile in addition to being portable.

Once your EBook is ready for distribution, then you must market it. Marketing an EBook online is similiar to marketing anything else. Put it up for download if it is free, give it away to your survey respondants or as a contest prize. Send it to your newsletter subscribers or post it in free EBook directories.

Continue creating EBooks! Once you have created your first EBook, be sure to create additional ones as you have the time. EBooks are getting very popular and should provide the perfect additional boost to your current online marketing efforts.

Additional Resources:

EBook Libraries
(http://carver.bizland.com/submit.htm) (http://www.the-ebook-directory.com)

Professional EBook Creation Software: (http://www.webcompiler.com/product.html) (http://www.html2exe.com/)

About the Author
Kathy Burns
(http://www.sasezpublications.com) (http://www.palmpilotfiles.com)
Freeware, Shareware, News and more for the Palm Pilot!